The ACT Legislative Assembly rejected yesterday a motion by Gary Humphries (Lib) that no public money be spent to subsidise a private abortion clinic in the ACT.
The Assembly voted on party lines with the Independents voting with the Government (Dennis Stevenson was absent).
Mr Humphries acknowledged that a majority of the Assembly thought a woman had a right to chose so did not want to canvas the moral issue. However, he thought other health issues should have priority. Abortions could be obtained in Sydney or in ACT public hospitals.
The Minister for Health, Wayne Berry, Helen Szuty (Ind) and Michael Moore (Ind) took the view that counselling should be at hand before and after and that the Sydney option discriminated against the poor.